


the way she paints the world

by likewinning



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Green Lantern (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Retail, Anxiety Disorder, F/F, PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2016-10-23
Packaged: 2018-08-24 03:17:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8354803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/likewinning/pseuds/likewinning
Summary: They're still holding hands and Jess isn't really sure why, but she sort of wishes people just did this for her all the time.





	

Jess hates the mall. It's not just all the people - Jess pretty much can't deal with people any time, anywhere. No, it's also the fact that everything is glaringly bright and the music from all the stores is too loud and people from kiosks keep _shouting_ at her and trying to hand her things and -

"Oopsies!"

The first thing Jess notices is that she's on the floor in the middle of what might be ten thousand people walking past. The _next_ thing she notices is the girl standing above her with her hand extended, and that the girl has on rollerskates. She's wearing shorts so short they have to be cutting off some kind of circulation, leopard print tights, a t-shirt that says _Bratmobile_ , and her hair - half blue, half pink - is done up in little pigtail buns.

"Um," Jess says.

"Sorry about that," the girl says. She blows a big blue bubble that reaches past her nose, pops it and says, "I was trying to win this race around the mall."

"Right," Jess says. She wants to go home. Usually no one knocks her over on their roller skates at home. And even then, home is where her bed is.

"D'you need any bandaids?" the girl asks. She holds up her purse, which is big enough to hold at least two bowling balls and is covered in about nine thousand buttons. "I bet I've got some in here. Or some Advil. Or -"

"I'm," Jess stammers. "I'm fine."

The girl looks at her for a second, then squats down to her level. Her eyes are huge and blue and she has a little red diamond tattooed by her earlobe. "I'm Harley," she says.

"Um," Jess says. "Jess."

Harley squints at her, chomps on her gum. "You're not the Jess who's s'posed to start at the Disney Store, are you?"

"Uh," Jess says. She _is_ , but she doesn't want to be. She wants to be at _home_ where her stuff is and no one asks her questions and -

"You _are_ , huh," Harley says. She grabs Jess's hand and pulls her to her feet so quickly Jess isn't sure how she got there. "Come on," Harley says. "I'm actually at my other job right now, but I'll take you over there."

"Your other job," Jess says. Harley took off her skates so Jess could keep up with her, so she's just walking the mall in mismatched socks. "It's rollerskating around the mall?"

Harley giggles, looks back at her and winks. They're still holding hands and Jess isn't really sure why, but she sort of wishes people just did this for her all the time. _Sara_ would probably have something to say about it, but then -

"Nah," Harley says. "I work at Hot Topic. Medical school doesn't pay for itself, right?"

"Uh," Jess says. "No, I don't think so. Should you be walking on this floor without your shoes? It seems kind of -"

"It's okay, I do it all the time," Harley says. "Hey, you wanna see me do a flip?"

"Um," Jess says. "I -"

"Here, hold these," Harley says. She thrusts her skates at Jess, then does a quick look around before she does not one, but two backflips, followed by a set of cartwheels. Jess runs to catch up with her, almost too freaked out to really see how _perfect_ those flips were. She used to watch gymnastics with her friends. She used to -

She used to have friends.

"And," Harley says. She takes her skates back from Jess and smiles so wide it hurts. "Here we are."

"Oh," Jess says, looking up at the sign above them, at the sea of kids inside the store, at the noise and the lights and the Disney princesses. "I…"

"Happiest place in the mall, right?" Harley says.

"Right," Jess says. "Well. I guess I should…"

"Relax," Harley says. "You'll be great." Before Jess can run away or stop her or do anything, Harley pulls her into a hug so tight Jess forgets to breathe, or maybe she wasn't doing that anyway.

When Harley lets go, she pushes Jess's hair behind her ears, nods, and gives her a softer smile. "If you get scared," Harley says. "Just hide in the stuffed animals. One time it took them _ages_ to find me in there."

"Okay," Jess says, because she isn't really sure if Harley's joking or not. Then she says, "Um, bye," and waves at Harley before scurrying past a couple of toddlers and into the store.

She can totally do this. Maybe.

 

*

 

Jess makes it through her first shift only really freaking out once, when she calls a princess the wrong name and a little boy has a tantrum at her. It's not her fault all the blonde ones look about the same.

"Rapunzel has the freckles," Jaime explains patiently when they're restocking the barbies. "See, and the big anime eyes?"

"Sure, okay," Jess says. "How do you remember all this?"

"I have a little sister," Jaime says. He takes out his phone and starts showing her pictures. "One year I dressed up as Jasmine for her."

"Nice brother," Jess says.

"It was cool," Jaime says. "My hips looked great in that outfit." Jess laughs, picks up a Jasmine doll to make sure she has the right princess this time.

"Didn't you watch this stuff?" Jaime asks.

"Um," Jess says. "My mom was kind of weird about the princesses. I saw the Lion King, though."

"Oh man," Jaime says. "The Lion King's the best! Bart!" he shouts across the store. Jess knocks over a stack of Belles. "Do the hula!"

Bart looks at them, grins, then does Timon's hula dance over to them, nearly toppling Jaime over in the process.

"See?" Bart asks when Jaime catches them like he's used to it. "We'll make you a pro in no time."

 

*

 

Her third day at work, Harley drags her out for coffee on her break. "Shouldn't we take separate breaks?" Jess asks. She doesn't want to get in _trouble._

Harley just laughs. Her hair is in a million braids today, and her t-shirt says The Gits in splattered red paint. If there's a dress code anywhere, Jess has yet to see it.

"See," Harley tells her a few minutes later at Starbucks. She's drinking some gigantic pink drink with ten tons of whipped cream that the guy who handed it off to her kept making faces at. Jess just got a small coffee. "It's a job, right. But you don't have to take it so serious."

"I take everything seriously," Jess murmurs to her coffee cup.

"Yeah," Harley says. "I noticed that."

"Sorry," Jess says. She doesn't _want_ to be this person. She wants to be able to have fun. It's just, every time she tries -

"It takes time, sweetie," Harley says. She has whipped cream on the corner of her mouth.

"Yeah," Jess says. She keeps tapping her fingers on the table, and Harley reaches over and puts her hand over hers. Her nails are painted black and red with little sparkles on each pinky finger. "How _much_ time, though?" Jess asks, and Harley squeezes her hand, lets go and sits back in her seat.

"It depends on how bad you want it," Harley says. "Hey," she says. "Come out with me and my friends tonight."

"Harley…" Jess starts. "I don't - going out really isn't…" Possible, Jess means. Even before everything, she didn't do crowds and dancing and too many people bumping into her and endless lines in the restroom.

"Come on," Harley says. "This'll be _good_ for you, girly. And I'll stay close."

"Okay," Jess says, surprising herself. "Okay, but… But I don't have anything to wear."

Harley grins, wraps her hand around Jess's wrist and drags her to her feet. "Then we'll just have to go shopping, won't we?"

 

*

 

"Shouldn't we," Jess says as Harley leads her up the escalator. "I mean, aren't we supposed to be back at work?"

"It's fine," Harley says. She waves her hand dismissively and takes out her phone. "I'll make some calls." And she does, some that seem to end in muttering and yelling from the people on the other end, but afterward Harley tucks her phone back into her bra and says, "All taken care of."

Jess shakes her head. "You're amazing, you know that?"

"I did," Harley shrugs. "But it's always nice to hear."

They shop for hours, maybe days. Harley drags her into store after store to find her _style_ , and Jess is pretty proud of herself for only having one panic attack per dressing room. Harley makes her show her everything she tries on, and sometimes Harley will nod and seem to decide before saying, "No, we can do better."

"Harley," Jess tells her at the next place. "I haven't had a job in years. I can't _afford_ anything here."

Harley just winks at her. She's wearing one of the dresses she tried on while she waits for Jess, a sparkly black thing that makes her breasts look amazing. "I know people here," Harley says. "Don't worry about it."

Jess closes the curtain to try the next thing on. "What - does that mean exactly?" she asks when she comes back out.

"It means," Harley starts, then look from her phone and says, " _Yowza_."

"No good?" Jess asks.

Harley snorts. "Honey, did you even look at yourself?"

 _I try not to_ , Jess almost says, but Harley shakes her head, drags her back into the dressing room and holds her up to the mirror. Jess is wearing a tight dress with spaghetti straps, emerald green and made out of some kind of shiny material that you probably have to dry clean or something. 

"Green," Harley says. "Green is definitely your color, baby."

Jess tries not to blush when Harley says _baby_ , but she sees it happen anyway.

"You're _gorgeous_ ," Harley says. She fusses with Jess's hair, playing with updos and braids until Jess laughs and pushes her away. "Come on," Jess says. "I have to pay for this thing."

"I told you not to worry about that," Harley says. She steps out of the room and pulls the curtain closed behind her. "Just throw the dress over when you get it off and I'll take care of the rest."

Jess stays in the dressing room for a while after Harley walks away. She gets her work clothes on and fixes her hair, gets the smudges of eyeliner out from under her eyes. She can't figure out why Harley's so nice to her. She can't figure out -

"Jess!" Harley says. She tugs the curtain open, and Jess jumps and turns around. Harley holds up the bag with her dress and says, "C'mon, I bet you still need shoes!"

She follows after Harley because she isn't sure what else to do.

 

*

 

Everything was going fine. Everything was going _fine_ \- Jess met a bunch of Harley's friends from Hot Topic, pretty boys whose names Jess will probably never be able to keep straight, and Jaime and Wally showed up too, and even though Jess kept clinging to Harley's side everything was _okay_ until Harley walked away for a minute and some guy _hit_ on Jess.

And then there was a sort of cracking noise and pain in Jess's hand because she took those self-defense classes she watched online _seriously_ and the guy is yelling at Jess and calling her a bitch and Jess isn't sure what else to do except _cry_ so she runs into the bathroom and locks herself in a stall for a while.

She's not sure how long she's in there. Her phone buzzes in her hand but she can't see the screen through how hard she's crying, and she can hear the echoes of people's heels as they trek in and the music from the club and then -

She knows they're Harley's shoes, because she's never met anyone with black and red pumps with sparkly little diamonds painted on them. Harley told her she painted them herself. Harley knocks on the stall and says, "Jess?"

"Uh-huh," Jess says.

"Can I come in?" Harley asks.

"Um," Jess says. She can't actually get herself to _move_ from where she's backed against the wall.

"Nevermind," Harley says. "I got this." There's a small thud, and then Harley's perched on top of the stall door, beaming down at her. "Hey, sugar," she says.

"Hi," Jess says. She sniffles, and Harley jumps down into the stall. She pulls a pack of tissues out of her little purse and hands them off to Jess.

"Thanks," Jess says. "I'm so sorry. I'm gonna leave soon, I just -"

"Hey," Harley says. She cups Jess's face in her hands, and Jess still hasn't figured out why Harley's the only one who can do that without making her flinch. "You can leave if you need to, but don't apologize, okay?"

"But I wrecked your night," Jess says. "You invited me out and I acted like a total _psycho_."

"Hey," Harley says. She takes one of the tissues from Jess and gets some of the mascara out from under Jess's eyes. "You want to see psycho, you should've seen what I said to that guy after he kept yelling."

"Oh," Jess says. She sniffs again. "Really?"

"Uh-huh," Harley says. "I got your back, babe. Sure, maybe you overreacted a little, but hey." Harley shrugs. "It happens."

"Thank you," Jess says. "I…" She sighs, and lets Harley pull her in for a hug. She rests her head on Harley's shoulder and tells her everything - about the woods, about her friends, about locking herself away in her apartment and only coming out because Sara _made_ her. Harley rubs her back and listens, and at the end of it Jess is crying again, but it doesn't seem so bad.

"Hey," Harley says. "I'm gonna take you home, okay? Only because you've had a long night, and the rest will do you good. But that doesn't mean I'm going to stop dragging you out. You can always say no, but the offer's there, all right?"

"Yeah," Jess says. She nods. "Yeah, I - thanks, Harley."

Harley smiles and pats her cheek. "Anytime. Come on, dollface. Let's get you out of those clothes." When Jess giggles, Harley grins. "You know what I mean."

When they leave the ladies room, Harley takes her by the hand and leads her out of the club, blowing kisses to all the Hot Topic guys as they go. Jess tries to keep her head down, but one of them - the one that works at Starbucks, M or something she thinks - stops her before they leave.

"Just wanted to say," M says. "That was a hell of a right hook."

"Oh," Jess says. She feels herself blushing. "Um, thanks."

"Sure," M says. "You ever want some free lessons, I work at the gym."

"You never offer _me_ free lessons," Harley says.

M stares her down. "That," he says. "Is because you're dangerous enough."

Harley sticks her tongue out at him, and Jess says, "Thanks."

"Sure," M says. "Nice meeting you, Jess." 

Jess stammers something back, and Harley squeezes her hand and guides her outside to her car. It's not that late, but the streets are quiet, and the moon is full and bright up above them. They get in the car, and Harley puts the radio on and sings along to whatever she finds. Jess watches her, the way her face lights up at certain songs, the way she makes up words if she doesn't know them. She's adorable like this, and it kind of makes Jess's chest clench up a little just to look at her.

When Harley pulls up in front of Jess's apartment, Jess says, "Sorry to make you leave so early."

"No worries," Harley says. "I should be studying anyway. Or sleeping. Or watching a _lot_ of brain-numbing cable."

"Right," Jess says. "Well. Anyway. Um. Thanks for. Everything."

"You got it," Harley says. She pulls Jess in for another hug, and Jess inhales bubblegum and vanilla perfume and Dr. Pepper chapstick. She starts to pull away, but when Harley turns her head her mouth is right _there_ and Jess just -

Just for a minute, and Harley's mouth is soft and sweet against her's, and -

And Jess pulls back, blushing to hell and ready to start panicking _again_ , but Harley just smiles at her, gentle and pretty and says, "I'll see you at work tomorrow, gorgeous."

When Jess gets inside, she doesn't freak out. She changes into her pajamas, grabs a gigantic pack of graham crackers, and turns on the TV. When her phone buzzes a minute later, it's from Harley: _Buffy marathon on channel 18. SEASON THREE._ Jess laughs and changes the channel.


End file.
